The main feature of the coup which the most principled, if not the most typical, British newspaper has called “the shortest, strangest, and most fraudulent election campaign of our time” are well known. Recapitulation has its uses, however, even if lack of space, not to mention more fatal inadequacies, must confine it to the narrowest of backgrounds and to statistics that lie near the surface of politics.

Judging from articles on the subject, American interest in British trade union law has been considerable, but spasmodic. Every important decision or statute affecting the legal status of the British trade unions has been followed by articles on this side of the Atlantic outlining the entire history of the British law of labor combinations and attempting to forecast the outcome of the most recent developments. Between times, the subject has not been discussed and no one has presented the actual results of the heralded developments. The Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act of 1927 is the most recent of these developments noted in this country.

On October 24 and 25, 1931, the Swiss voters selected the members of their National Council for the next four years. The election was of unusual importance because the world-wide depression has created an economic crisis in Switzerland. Unemployment has been increasing, banks have been failing, and the national government has been piling up a deficit. A flood of candidates were in the field for the 187 seats now in the National Council (11 less than in the outgoing Council). Of the total of 740 candidates, 193 were nominated by the Independent Democrats, 141 by the Catholic Conservatives, 152 by the Socialists, 85 by the Peasants, 28 by the Liberal Democrats, 77 by the Communists, and 64 by the minor parties.